Please Don't Do This to Me
by brietvd
Summary: Caroline Forbes finds out Klaus is dead, however she keeps seeing his ghost... what does this mean?
1. Chapter 1

_"Klaus is dead."_ The phone falls from her grip. Her bouncy curls jostled by the sudden action. She stares off into the distance. She can almost smell his cologne. Klaus. Is. Dead.

She picks up the phone again, "Are you sure?" She asks, somewhat panicked.

 _"Positive. Stake to the heart. Him and Elijah_. _"_

"I have to go." She hangs up quickly. Shoving her phone into her back pocket. Then she runs out her front door, the door barely slamming before she's a mile away.

 _It's not a crime to love something you can't explain_. The tears are coming now, she has to stop running, she sinks down a tree trunk, she has absolutely no idea where she is. Where he is. "Klaus." Her lips barely part.

"Hello love." She looks up and he's there, and god damn it. He looks so real. She can smell him and oh baby, it hurts. She can feel the pain rising into her chest. She gets up fast. She walks over.

She's going to shove him, she's going to kill him. Then he's gone.

The image. The smell. It's all gone. "Klaus. No no no, I'm sorry, come back." Tears are streaming down her face, they're so hot, she can barely see. "Come back." She whispers. Caroline Forbes feels so horribly alone.

 _"Do you regret the time we've spent together?"_

 _"Seriously?" ... "No I don't regret our time together. When we met, I was so young..."_

Different people. Caroline and Klaus. Different people.

 _"The man I met back then - terrified me."_

"Klaus. Damn it! Come back out here!" She punches a tree and she won't stop. She falls to her knees again, "Klaus." She chokes out. She slowly gathers herself into a small ball on the ground, "Klaus."

Her throat is closing and she wishes she was dead. He was, simply put, the love of her life. They just had the worst timing - _ever_. Nothing would ever work out between them. There was always something. Babies. Spells. Lovers. Curses. There was always something keeping them apart. Why didn't she try harder? Why didn't she try to make things work with Klaus? She loved him. She loved him more than she loved any of the others. Stefan. Tyler. Any of them.

Caroline had opened her heart to a dangerous, terrible man. He had crept in and he had built a little fire next to her heart, which he would occasionally show up to tend to. Whether it be through donations or phone calls. She could never resist showing up at his door. For help, for guidance.

Saying goodbye in that bar, that final kiss, it would never be enough for them. They would always need more. One passionate night in the forest was not enough. Eternity was not enough. Now, there was nothing.

Caroline's phone won't stop buzzing in her pocket. She knows word is spreading and her friends are beginning to worry about her. They should worry. She is not ok. She will not be ok for another century or two. She has twins.

"Love."

She hears it again, she doesn't open her eyes this time, she can't let him leave again. "Klaus, please, tell me it's not true."

"I'm sorry." He says it simply, it hangs in the air. His apology, just floating above her head, waiting for her to accept the ugly truth.

She doesn't want him to disappear she can't handle it but if she opens her eyes he's gone and god damn it all she wants to do is see him again. "I'll go anywhere with you, just tell me it's not true. That it's not real." Her words come out in broken sobs. "We never had a chance."

Caroline Forbes. Strong. Passionate. Full of light. She was not a young woman anymore, she has aged beyond her years. But the news of Klaus's death has her reduced to a pile of tears in the middle of a forest floor. While her phone won't. Stop. Buzzing. And now she's offering to run away with this ghost, this ghost of a man she never got the opportunity to love. Run from everything she's ever known. From her children.

"You know we can't do that." His whisper is so close, it warms up her ear. She swears she can feel the brush of his lips. But if she opens her eyes he's going to be gone.

"We can. I raised strong girls, I can do this. Please." She says it more confidently, the tears are flowing more silently, "I can't lose you." Her voice lowers to a whisper, "I just can't."

It's cold again. He's gone. She can feel it in her bones. Her eyes open and he's not there anymore. In her back pocket she finds the drawing, the drawing of her with the horse. He had left it for her.

She pulls herself up, hugging her knees to her chest. "I love you." She says it so quietly, but she knows he's the only one who needs to hear it. "We can do this." She says. "We can."


	2. Chapter 2

She stayed in the forest for weeks, her phone died, she died. Caroline Forbes was not going to move on from this, she couldn't. How could she? She had to go to New Orleans, she had to find him, but she couldn't will herself to move. She wakes up on the forest floor, leaves in her hair, the scent of pine hanging in the air. Caroline pushes herself up off the ground, finding her phone, touching it for the first time in weeks.

Dozens of missed calls from Stefan.

She sighs, quickly opening her messages to text Stefan that she's ok, and that she needs time. She sends the message and then turns off her phone.

* * *

She arrived on the day of his funeral. She wore all black, as required, she walked in fast with a hat covering her face. She doesn't know anyone here. Everyone she knew was dead. Hayley. Klaus. Elijah. All gone. She didn't expect any of her friends to be there, none of them ever understood Klaus like she did. She takes a seat in the back and stares straight ahead.

The service is fast, there's not a lot of people here, she's wondering if anyone here even knows who Klaus is. Everyone slowly filters out of the small service, it's like a blur. She doesn't see any faces, she can't hear anything. Suddenly, a hand on her shoulder.

"M'am, I don't want to rush you, but we are closing up soon." The church director says.

Caroline stands up quickly, "Of course." She's about to turn around and walk out, but something begins to pull her. "Do you mind giving me a minute?" She asks, her lips barely parting.

He nods quickly, clasping his hands together. "Of course." He goes outside.

Caroline begins walking slowly towards the casket, then faster, until she's almost at a jog. _Why is it closed_. Is her wild thought. She opens the casket. Her eyes widen and she gasps. There's nothing there. He's not in there. _He's not in there_.

"You weren't supposed to do that."

Lights out for Caroline Forbes.

* * *

She wakes up in a dark room, her head throbbing. "Hello?" She calls out quietly.

"Hello." A man walks out of the shadows, "Caroline Forbes."

"And you are?" She asks, barely breathing.

"Lets just say a friend." He kneels down to meet her eyes, "Caroline Forbes. You will live if you forget this."

Caroline's eyes squint at him, "Where is Klaus?" She asks, her voice rising - almost to the point of hysteria.

He smiles, he smells musky, his eyes are piercing, "Caroline you need to promise me you will not go looking for him."

Her heart drops, she knows he can hear it. What does that mean? Does that mean what she thinks it means? "Is Klaus alive?" She asks, her voice barely registering in her consciousness. She's so dizzy. She's so hurt and confused. Is Klaus alive. She needs to know.

"No."

His answer hangs in the air. She doesn't believe him. Not for a second. Klaus has to be alive. Why else would this strange man not let her open a casket. Why else would this strange man kidnap her? This man knows where Klaus is.

Suddenly, a man walks in. Tyler.

"Tyler?" Caroline asks, her eyebrows furrowing, "Aren't you dead?"

Tyler walks over to her quickly, picking her up off the ground and hugging her tight. "Something strange is happening Caroline."

She pulls back from his embrace, "I don't know what's going on. Where is Klaus? Is he ok?"

Tyler seems annoyed, "I don't know where he is. I just know it's not safe for you, for anyone, to be looking for him."

"You don't even know who I am." Caroline snaps, "I don't even know who this guy is, and while I'm 'going off' here, I don't know who you are, Tyler. I don't know how the hell you are even here!" She spins in a circle, "Lets bring out the whole undead gang while we are at it! Huh? Right?!"

"Caroline you need to calm down you need to be quiet-"

"Oh yeah or what? You're gonna kill me? Doesn't look like killing people makes them go away so go ahead, I'll even give you a fair shot." Caroline lunges at him then, holding him flush against the wall with her hand grasped around his neck. Her eyes flaring, "Where the hell is Klaus?"

The unspoken man takes his hat off finally, "We are trying to figure that out but we cannot do that without some patience, Miss Forbes." Elijah Mikaelson. Alright. What the hell is going on.


	3. Chapter 3

How much pain could a human body take? How about a vampire? How about a werewolf? How about Caroline Forbes? The answer was a lot. Caroline Forbes had harvested so much pain over her many years of life, but she was not prepared for this new pain. The loss of love. The loss of Klaus.

Now she found herself standing in a room basically filled with a bunch of dead people but not the dead person she wanted.

"Ok, someone tell me what the hell is going on here." Caroline says, finally breaking the silence.

"We don't know. I just woke up, precisely where you're standing to be exact." Elijah says.

Caroline feels a little awkward, taking a step to the right, "Ok so if you regenerated or whatever - what happened to Klaus?"

The room falls silent.

"Klaus is dead, Caroline." Tyler says very quietly.

Caroline swallows hard, she can feel her pulse quickening, "That's not possible." She says, lifting her hand to point at Elijah, "If that was possible he wouldn't be here either. And from the sounds of it, you guys both died from the same thing." Her words are picking up speed, "So therefore, Klaus is alive, somewhere."

Tyler and Elijah share a look, Elijah speaks softly, "Caroline, we haven't seen him or heard from him. Don't you think the first person he would have went to.. would have been you?"

Caroline stops talking. She doesn't want to talk to them anymore. They have no answers they only have questions and the only answer they have is the one she doesn't want. She folds her arms across her chest, "Ok well, I'm leaving. If you guys don't want to bother trying to find Klaus, I will." She pushes past them towards the exit.

"What about your kids?" Tyler asks.

Caroline's blood runs cold, she turns around, giving him a glare, "You have absolutely no right to talk about my kids." She says quickly. "Right now, mommy is running a big important errand."

"Did you tell them that or did you just disappear?" Elijah asks.

Caroline turns away from them, "They'll understand." She says, her eyes dropping. "I have to find him."

"And where do you think one of the oldest creatures in the world is going to go after spontaneous regeneration?" Tyler asks, "Huh? You don't know him as well as you think you do."

"I might be the only one who knows where he'd go." Caroline says. "I knew him in a different way." She pauses, "More real." Caroline then walks out of the cave.

* * *

So step #1: find Klaus. Step #1/2: Find out where he would go and then go there. Step #2: ditch the phone. Caroline's phone has been ringing nonstop, and right now, she didn't need this. She didn't need these constant reminders of people she had just abandoned to go find Klaus. They didn't understand what she was doing. They didn't understand how important it was to her. So she had to drop them.

She drives over a bridge and she chucks the phone out the window. Step #2 done.

Now step #1. Where the hell is Klaus?

 _"Perhaps one day, in a year, or even a century, you'll turn up at my door and let me show you what the world has to offer."_

 _"He's your first love, I intend to be your last, whatever it takes."_

His voice is so strong in her head she is starting to shake. Her hands grip the wheel tighter as she strains to focus. Where is Klaus. Where is he.

"Small town boy, small town life, it'll never be enough." She turns and she sees him, he's sitting in the passenger seat, he's so real. She is locking eyes with his icy blue stare, his cologne is filling the car. He's warm. He's alive. He's sitting in the passenger seat, his seatbelt neatly clicked, as if he'd been there all along.

She gasps and drives off the road.

Suddenly, darkness, she feels the car hurtling towards the bottom of the ditch. I _t flipped_ , she realizes as she's tumbling down the hill. She is launched out the front seat and rolls to safety a few feet away. Glass is everywhere, her head is throbbing. She pushes herself up quickly, "Klaus?" She calls out. She is looking around desperately. "KLAUS?" She yells. Caroline begins to crawl towards the car, slowly pulling herself up into a run. "Klaus? Klaus! Are you ok!" She finally gets to the passenger side. It's empty.

Caroline whips around to look around her, "KLAUS!" She yells, desperate.

Klaus had been in the passenger seat, she knows it. The seat belt had been unbuckled, the side passenger window busted open from the inside. He _had_ to have been in there. There is no logical reason as to why any of those things would be broken.

 _"Caroline, I'm standing in one of my favourite places in the world, surrounded by food, music, art, culture, and all I can think about is how much I want to show it to you. Maybe one day you'll let me."_

His voice is so close now, she can feel it. She takes a step back, two words fall out of her mouth, "New Orleans." She brushes the glass of her jeans, "All of the places in the world you want to show me, and you pick New Orleans?"

"He really ought to know you better than that by now huh." Out of the trees emerges Hayley.

"God what the hell is going on here? How do you people keep finding me? Okay, different question, why won't you people leave me alone?" Caroline pretty much just snaps at Hayley. Caroline was doing her best not to resort to her old petty, jealous ways, but seeing Hayley just show up out of freakin' no where after she had just destroyed her car was really bothering her.

"You are the golden ticket."

Caroline rolls her eyes, "God shut up. What does that even mean? Seriously? You regenerate from the dead and that's what you have to say to me, Willy Wonka? What the hell is going on here? Why are any of you coming back at all?"

"There's unfinished business here, Caroline. Klaus is the only one who didn't regenerate in Mystic Falls."

"Yes, so I am going to go find him, and you are going to stay here. I don't need or want a road trip buddy." Caroline says.

"Well maybe you do want one considering your driving skills are..." Hayley looks at the wreckage, "Well."

Caroline is about to explain to Hayley that she crashed her car because she saw Klaus - then realizes how literally insane that sounds, "Okay that's just none of your business and kind of hurtful."

"Point being, if you wanna find Klaus, you're gonna need my help."

"I don't think the baby mama is going to know nearly as much as I do." Caroline says, her pettiness showing.

"Didn't you drop out of his life for these last couple of years?"

Caroline's blood goes cold, "Yes but-"

Hayley's eyebrows raise.

"Okay you know what, I don't want to hear it from you. I'm going to find Klaus by myself, and I don't want your help." Caroline begins climbing up the hill, "Don't follow me." She snaps at Hayley.

Hayley stands at the bottom of the hill, putting her hands up as if in defeat, "Alright, I'll tell him you say hi when I find him first."

Caroline pauses, midway up the hill, "Are you seriously gonna make this a competition?"

Hayley shrugs, "Nope."

"You are."

"Didn't say that."

"You pretty much did!" Caroline finishes climbing up the hill, "Well if it's gonna be like that, I'm going to win. Hard." Caroline grimaces after saying that, "Ok whatever I'm just going to find him first. Thanks!" She begins walking away then turns around, "Mind cleaning that up for me?" She motions the wreckage, winks, and walks away.


	4. Chapter 4

Caroline Forbes wakes up in a hotel room in New Orleans, the sheets are cold, its raining. It's such a bad day already and she hasn't gotten out of bed yet. She rolls over in her bed to check her phone - then remembers, she threw it out a car window. So that's a no go.

"Good morning, love."

Her eyes slowly drag themselves up, coming out of the bathroom, Klaus. "I know you're not real. I crashed my car for you last time, not falling for this one again." She pulls herself up to a sitting position, rubbing the dirt, and the Klaus, out of her eyes. But when she's done rubbing, he's still there. "I'm not buying this."

"I'm not asking you to buy anything, love." He sits on the edge of her bed, "How have you been?"

"How have I been?" She lets go of the breath she's been holding, "I don't know. I honestly have no idea. Where is Klaus?" She asks, more demanding.

He just chuckles and shakes his head, looking down, "We both know that's not how this works, Caroline."

"Well typically when you die you don't come back, so lets just say most things aren't working properly."

"Do you remember when we kissed in that bar? Down the street?" His eyes wander to the window, "You didn't turn around, Caroline."

Caroline shakes her head, "No. I did not." She plops back onto her pillows, "Are you real?" She asks, "I'm so tired of these.. hallucinations.. ghosts.. whatever you are. I just want the real thing."

"Find me, love. I'm so close." Klaus says, with a smirk, he gets up, adjusting his jacket. "I bet you'll even find me today."

Caroline gets up quickly, "What do you mean? Where? First letter, anything, please."

"You're smart. You'll figure it out, won't you, love?" He smirks and in the blink of an eye, he's gone again.

Caroline thought that when Klaus died, the memory of him would stop haunting her.

* * *

Find him today? Caroline didn't even know where to start. She went to bars, she went to his house, she went everywhere. She went everywhere. At a loss, she found herself sitting in the graveyard. He wasn't buried there. No one had the decency to bury him.

If she'd been here, she would have buried him.

She rests her face in her hands, sighing, "Where the hell are you, Klaus."

Suddenly, she hears someone behind her, she whips around quick, to see herself face to face with Stefan Salvatore. She doesn't smile, but she jokes, "Human looks really good on you, Stefan."

He puts his hands in his pockets, "Thanks. What are you doing all the way out here?"

Caroline shrugs, "I don't really know anymore."

"You're here to find him, aren't you?"

"What do you know about that?" She stands up, "We both know I can kill you in less than a second, so if you know something, you have to tell me."

Stefan chuckles, "I'm not sure I'm going to ever get used to threats like that. We used to be friends Caroline. More, even."

She folds her arms over her chest, "That was a long time ago. This is important to me, Stefan." She pauses, holding her lips tight against each other, "I'm not totally sure why it's this important."

"Because you love him. You didn't get your chance."

She feels like cold water has been thrown on her, she lets out the breath she'd been holding. "Yeah. Maybe that's it."

"Yeah, maybe."

The silence is deafening. They're just staring at each other. Caroline feels like she's going to cry. The pain of losing Klaus has been so raw, so real. The most emotion she's felt in a long time. Standing here, talking to human Stefan, about Klaus, was all too much for her. Everything had changed so much. Before, she was just a normal high school student, no vampires, no hybrids, no one making her feel this dark and lost. Now, everyone made her feel this dark and lost. She hadn't spoken to Elena in years, she lost Klaus, and now Stefan, standing in front of her, trying to be nice. Pretending like he hadn't spent a year trying to kill her best friend.

There were so many emotions spinning in Caroline's head, and there was no where for them to go.

"Can you at least say you're sorry?" She chokes out.

Stefan looks confused, then nods, understanding, looking down at his feet. "Caroline, we both know you don't want an apology like that."

"I want something!" She snaps.

Her tone silences the entire space, she's not breathing, Stefan is breathing, hard, his heart is picking up pace - she can hear every beat.

"Check under the old willow tree, in the park." He says it so quietly it's barely a whisper.

Caroline looks confused, "For what?"

Stefan shrugs and starts to walk away, "Figure it out, Caroline. I'll catch you around."

"Yeah, I'd love that." She says sarcastically, "Thanks anyway!" She yells after him.


End file.
